Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Just a quick fly-by as things are crazy crazy crazy - the weekend should bring a different nature to my month as all goes into holiday mode....

I hope you all get the chance to observe a very special event this Friday! Friday December 16th marks the 1 year anniversary of the internet community response to the Star Wars related bullying of Katie. We even addressed the issue here on Paper Napkins. This year we are honoring the spirit of that event with Katie, her family, her school, and the internet community at large, with Wear Star Wars, Share Star Wars Day (or Proud To Be Me Day - if Star Wars isn't really your thing.) If you are able, wear a Star Wars shirt this Friday, or something that reflects your interests, and share it with others. And if you are financially able, take a toy that reflects your interest and donate it to a local hospital or toy drive - make sure you specify with a post-it note or taped note that your gift is for a girl or a boy, otherwise they will follow the manufacturer's advertised gender only (which is usually unnecessarily divisive - and what caused the bullying of Katie in the first place!)

Friday, December 2, 2011

It's snowed here. It's gotten cold. There's a girl wearing a festive red hat with white trim every day at school. The calendar confirms it, December and the holidays are here. This random tabs will focus on some holiday events happening around the web.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

For the last week I've been playing Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, on Mommy time.... definitely not the same as a hard core gaming weekend, but I think I have enough hours into the game to give you a few thoughts. They will be in the spoiler-free format you can count on here at Paper Napkins.
First I need to get some disclaimers out of the way:

This is the first Zelda game that I've played for a whole week. I love RPGs, they are my favorite genre, but it's sorta been that I play the Final Fantasy titles and my husband gets the shorter Zelda titles. This play is all me, so far. We'll see if I get to be the one that finishes the game, I had my doubts in the first boss fight. I watched every second of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess - running clues from the book for the later, some of Ocarina of Time and various others, but never have I, myself, been at the controls for more than the first bit, or the occasional mini-game.

This is the first Wii title I have played that makes use of the motion plus that came out last year or so. I did get two new motion plus controllers last year for Christmas (in anticipation of this game!), but have not used the new feature until now.

When I play an RPG I do EVERYTHING. I get very frustrated when I can't do something, and I do my best to make sure I don't leave anything undone or behind. This is slowing my progress doubly, because I have yet to purchase the guide book since Amazon has yet to get it and I ended up preordering the game from bestbuy.com and the box was completely beat up when it arrived. Since I keep these sorts of things for a long time and I like my stuff in nice crisp condition, it'll be a bit before I trust them again.

For those who aren't familiar with the Zelda franchise here is a 8-bit summary: Link is a kid who wears green, he has pointy ears even if no one else does. He is the destined hero of legend, usually working for a higher power such as a deity. He is the character you play. Some girl you know will be in danger, usually kidnapped, she may or may not be Princess Zelda, you will take up a training sword and venture forth to find her. Eventually you will get the Master Sword which is cool. You start with crappy wooden shields and then are able to get cool stuff later. You also use a sling shot, bow and arrows, bombs, boomerang or other flying device that returns to you, grapplers, and some kind of musical device. You are after the Triforce and new skills. You will get something cool to help you move around the world, a boat, a horse, a bird. You have to get good so you can rescue Princess Zelda from Gannon (or whatever he calls himself this time). Gannon also wants the Triforce so he can bring his darkness to the world as it's ruler. The world has a long history and your time is usually not the peak of its existence. The past is important to the present. For more of an overview, see our 25th anniversary post, here and here.

Like my other reviews, you can hit the jump and scroll to the end for a pro/con summary or read through all the dialogs in spoiler-free safety.

Who is KtC and why does she write this stuff?

Callista Knight is an alias I have used off and on since 1997. An online name I crafted from my favorite Jedi. The real me has a degree from a state college where I studied critters. I have been a Christian since I was 6 years old. I am the mother of 3 amazing children. Wife to a husband who probably touches the border of insanity as much as I. The idea for this blog has been in the works since 2008 when I lost my job and took a temp job watching videos recorded at night of Pacific lamprey swimming through the dams of the Columbia River. The mind numbing boredom inflicted upon me caused me to start thinking "in blog" and I longed for a chance to write down my crazy ideas somewhere other than the paper napkins in my desk and the post it notes I later acquired. I have many ideas, mostly half baked, but little time to write them. When I do have time to write, what I remember ends up here or in my rejected blog posts on the blogger server. This blog gives me a chance to get my ideas out of my head and hopefully to engage in the occasional conversation about them. I do reply to all emails and I try to reply to most comments as well.

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